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| By Woodrow J. Hinton |
Size is everything on the cinema screen, making a movie kiss, no matter how delicate or soft, an explosive event. Film kisses throughout 2004 are as varied as the different actors behind the lips.
Old romantics kiss (James Garner and Gena Rowlands in The Notebook), as do young lovers (Eva Green and Michael Pitt in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers) and lovers both young and old (Annette Bening and Shaun Evans, who plays a suitor half her age in Being Julia).
There are action kisses (House of Flying Daggers) and quirky kisses (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). But nothing compares to the old-fashioned glamour experienced when beautiful celebrity actors Jude Law and Julia Roberts passionately kiss early on in director Mike Nichols' razor sharp adaptation of Patrick Marber's play, Closer. The effect is invigorating, erotic, a welcome turn-on.
Law brims with desperate lustful obsession as Daniel, a first-time novelist who falls instantly in love with Anna (Roberts), the pretty photographer taking his picture. Roberts, always the sassy heroine, brings Anna to life, unsure about what she wants from anyone.
Nichols never shows them in bed. In fact, it's surprising how little contact takes place between them. Still, it doesn't matter. Their soulful, hungry kiss is worth 100 bedroom scenes. (Steve Ramos)
